


Delirious Fools

by Canadiantardis



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: 2 years in the future, Bonding, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Fluff, Galra Keith (Voltron), Klance Big Bang 2017, M/M, POV Multiple, Sick Keith (Voltron), Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-09
Updated: 2017-11-21
Packaged: 2019-01-26 12:47:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 10,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12557712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Canadiantardis/pseuds/Canadiantardis
Summary: It's been two years since Lance found Blue, and he and the other Paladins have been all over the galaxies since then, but they still have one problem: Keith and Lance fighting. After another fight, Shiro forces them to work together while searching an unrecorded system. Before they even reach the surface things go wrong, and before long, Keith and Lance crash land on Zobos, an uninhabited planet with no way to contact the others, and on the first night Keith gets sick. Lance has to wait until either Keith gets better, someone notices their radio silence, or for their Lions to wake up.Fic for theKlance Big Bang Event





	1. Chapter 1

Lance was a lot of things. He was a jokester, a smooth talker, a flirt, a great shot, and a great pilot. He was easy to please and easy to talk to. He made more friends than enemies, on any of the planets they’ve been to since finding his Lion Saphira, and becoming one of the Paladins of Voltron.

So why was it that, even after two years being on a ship-castle, Keith still couldn’t play nice?

“You did that on purpose!” he hollered, trying to get the slimy green food goo out of his hair after Keith had ‘tripped’ and upended his entire plate on Lance’s seated form. “You’re so dead, Mullet-head.”

Lance launched himself out of his seat, grabbing the half-Galra man around the middle and sending them both on the floor, now fighting for the upper hand and trying to pin the other. Meanwhile, the others laughed - well, Hunk and Pidge did. Shiro sighed, running his organic hand through his greying hair while giving the two young men disappointed glares, and the Alteans just watched with bored expressions

“I said sorry!” Keith shouted back, jabbing Lance’s stomach with a couple fingers before twisting their bodies so he was pinning Lance down now. “Get your hearing checked!”

“You get your hearing checked!” Lance retorted lamely, still angry at the Red Paladin. He tried rolling over the way Keith had done to him a couple moments ago, but found it impossible, so he settled with growling up at the half-Galra.

“Okay, okay, that’s enough.” Shiro’s voice sounded tired. Suddenly Keith was yanked off Lance, looking like an angry kitten being held up by their mother. But it was only Shiro holding him by the back of his collar. “Both of you, I’ve had enough of this.”

“Keith started it, you saw,” Lance protested, being helped up by a chuckling Hunk.

Shiro simply sighed like a disappointed dad, before he grabbed at Lance and made both young men walk ahead of him. “I don’t care, just… We’re going to the bridge, I have a mission for you both.”

The Black Paladin steered the two down the corridors to the bridge, cutting off all of their attempts to speak until they reached their destination. Shiro pushed the two into the room none-too-gently.

“What’s this about, Shiro?” Keith asked, smoothing his jacket collar while frowning at the older man.

Shiro looked between the two of them, crossing his arms over his chest. “You two still haven’t learned to get along. Allura and Coran have made me stand by on the hopes you’ll both smarten up, but seeing how that doesn’t seem to be happening any time soon…” He uncrossed his arms, pulling up the galaxy map and focusing on the few planets within a system named Vainia. “So, I thought a little mission between the two of you will make you bond.”

“Wait, what?” Lance cried.

“Are you kidding? Go on a mission with loudmouth?” Keith retorted at the same time, shooting a glare at Lance, who returned it in kind.

“Yes, because we need to know what’s down there on these planets. Everyone else is going to different planets in the system,” Shiro told them. “Allura’s going with me to Oswara-” he pointed to the third planet from the whitish sun- “and Hunk and Katie are heading to Nunov.” He pointed to the farthest planet, before pointing to what looked like a purple planet in between the other two Shiro had pointed at. “That leaves you two with exploring Zobos. Coran and Allura have both said they don’t have any information about any of these planets, but believe at least two of them should have sentient life. You are to explore and report back in two spicolian movements or sooner, depending on what you both find.”

“Can’t I go with Hunk? He’s a much better companion!” Lance pleaded, not wanting to be alone with Keith for longer than a quintant, much less two spicolian movements.

“Yeah, I’d rather take Pidge over Mr. Smooth-Lips over here.” Keith jerked a thumb over to Lance angrily, and the Blue Paladin bristled like a hedgehog.

“Well, at least I can talk to the inhabitants of the planets we save instead of acting like a douche and not saying a freaking word, Mr. Tries-Too-Hard,” he retorted, putting his hands up, ready for another fight when Shiro shouted at them both.

“Stand down or I’ll make you. Katie and Hunk want nothing to do with you two until you stop bickering like kids,” he told them sternly. “Now pack up, you’re heading to Zobos in a varga.”

* * *

 

Lance was happy that at least they didn’t have to take only one Lion to Zobos. Saphira flew next to the Red Lion, humming quietly in Lance’s head in an attempt to soothe him, but he was still bitter about the mission.

It wasn’t like he’d never tried making nice with Keith over the past two years. He’d attempted it numerous times, but whenever he thought they were moving forward, something happened that made Keith push him away so violently all the progress they’d made would be blasted like swiss cheese.

And it was never his fault, Lance was sure of this fact. He had gotten tired of the whole rivalry thing within the first couple months. And really, if he was going to be stuck in space with only six other people, he didn’t want to hate them. But Keith was the exception, always brooding and snappy and angry and hot-headed. Lance hated it, hated how he kept fighting with the Red Paladin, but he was never able to do anything to fix it. As the saying went, the ball was in Keith’s court now, and seemed to have been for about a year now.

They were approaching the atmosphere when everything went wrong.

First thing they noticed was the sudden static in their ears, signaling they lost contact with the others outside the planet’s atmosphere.

“Can you get ahold of Shiro?” Keith asked, rather agitatedly, as the ground inched closer before them.

Lance frowned, trying to reach their leader. Nothing but sharp static. “Something’s blocking the transmission. Same happened to you?”

“Yeah, when we hit the first layer of the atmosphere. I was going to report we just got to Zobos but couldn’t get to him.”

“Maybe it’s just bad reception?” Lance answered in a question, knowing he was wrong anyway. There was no place in the galaxy where they would get bad reception within their Lions.

Before either could comment on that, Lance felt a sudden snap in his head, disorienting him. He frantically looked around the cockpit. Saphira had stopped humming, and the silence was deafening. But that wasn’t the only thing.

Saphira wasn’t responding at all.

Lance shook the controls, trying to get his Lion to move, to respond to him. It was like she had turned into a dead machine, and it sent foreboding chills down his spine. And now that Saphira wasn’t working, Lance couldn’t even get into contact with Keith.

Unable to do anything, Lance watched with growing anxiety as the planet Zobos filled his view, his Lion in practically a nosedive for the planet’s surface. Screaming, Lance braced for impact seconds before the Blue Lion met the neon green ground.

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapters will be every other day, with the exception of today and tomorrow. Funnily enough, both my Klance and Shiro BBs are getting posted today, so I decided to post the first chapters of both before switching every day between the two. This fic will update every ODD day.  
> Also, art starts in the second or third chapter!


	2. Chapter 2

Lance groaned when he came to, a few minutes later. He struggled to sit up properly, blinking like an owl, and tried looking out, but found nothing to see, like his Lion had fallen straight into the ground.

At the thought, Lance tried to move the controls, not getting a response from Saphira, and he frowned. This had never happened before, which wasn’t helping the panic in his system.

Taking inventory, Lance found himself to be okay physically, luckily. He was a little bruised up from practically tumbling around in the cockpit like a ragdoll, but nothing hurt too much to worry about.

He stood up, keeping his hands against the cockpit walls to keep steady and began to head out. He needed to see what happened and if he could figure out a way to help Saphira with whatever happened to her. And maybe see…

_Keith._ Lance straightened more in surprise. _Did he have the same problem with Red?_

Lance hurried out of his Lion, his helmet fully covering his face in case the atmosphere was toxic or had no oxygen. Looking around, he examined the new land around him, the vibrant green ground, the dark brown trees with rust-like leaves hanging off the branches and a pale violet sky above him. He was surprised to see his Lion wasn’t stuck like an ostrich in the ground and nothing was covering her eyes. He was reminded of the very first time he had been in the cockpit, how he couldn’t see anything until she woke up.

Patting the metal, feeling unsure, Lance scanned farther up the new land, seeing nothing before…

There! A strip of familiar red between some of the thick trees that looked different from the rust red leaves. Lance jumped out of Saphira fully, using his jetpack to propel closer to Red.

“Keith!” He shouted, cupping his hands around where his mouth was, forgetting that his helmet was covering his face. “Keith, are you okay?”

A groan was his only answer, coming from the communication link in his helmet and Lance sighed in relief. At least Keith was okay, though, as Lance looked over Red, he noticed her eyes weren’t shining and alive as usual. She looked similar to Saphira now.

“Keith, c’mon man, I think something happened to our Lions. S-Blue won’t respond to me.”

“Red won’t either,” Keith groaned, sounding hurt.

Lance shot up to where he could get into Red. Keith was still in the cockpit, clutching his head with one hand, the other holding his side.

“You okay, man?” Lance asked as he got closer to the Red Paladin.

Keith looked over at Lance, nodding as he straightened out. “Yeah, just got thrown around a bit. Whacked my head against the controls, would’ve lost an eye if not for the helmet,” he grunted.

“Quiznak, what even happened?” Lance asked, hoping the other would know, but doubting it.

“I’m not sure. I was talking to Shiro before we reached the outer atmosphere, then static, then Red just, I don’t know, stopped responding. Probably same as Blue?”

“We can’t get in contact with the others?” Lance’s eyes widened, just remembering that fact.  He turned away from Keith to try and see if he could contact Katie or Hunk or the Castle. “Quiznak! Why?”

“Don’t look at me, I don’t know. Something with this planet,” Keith grunted, now standing even though he still held his head as if to rub the spot through his helmet. “C’mon, we should try and find if there’s some civilization somewhere that can tell us what happened, or if they can help us.”

“Uh, didn’t Allura say one of these planets didn’t have any sentient life? What if this is the planet?” Lance stumbled out of Red’s cockpit as Keith marched out to survey the area. “I wasn’t able to see anything besides our Lions and trees.”

Keith was quiet for a long time, simply looking around before he groaned again. “There has to be someplace.”

“Dude, no one knows if there is anything here,” Lance tried to reason, his head still a bit scrambled from the ragdolling in Saphira. “Let’s just start by figuring out what’s closest to us, or try to wake up our Lions.”

Keith ignored him, using his jetpack to get as high as he could. He hovered well above the trees. Lance frowned, crossing his arms. _Of course,_ he thought, _Keith still won’t listen to me even though we’re both stuck._

Keith came back down, arms crossed. “It looks like there’s mountains all around us, so we’re either in a valley or a bowl. We have to find a way out to see if there’s anything like a village or something.”

“Yeah? And what about our Lions? They don’t seem to be just sleeping.” Lance looked over at Red worriedly. “We can’t exactly move them. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to get too far away from them in case this was a Galra trap.”

“This is far from Galra hands, Lance.” Keith sounded agitated, looking anywhere but at the other. “And how would they have known we were coming to this planet?”

“I don’t know!” The Blue Paladin threw up his hands. “But I just don’t want to get too far from my Lion when I can’t even feel her in my head.”

Keith seemed to pause, finally looking at Lance in the face. “You can’t feel her presence either?”

Lance nodded and Keith turned his head to look over at Red, looking like he was thinking deeply. “What’s up with this freaky planet?” Lance heard Keith mutter.

“Beats me man, but while I agree we should look around, I don’t think we should try to get too far from our ladies.”

Keith sighed and nodded at Lance’s words, his shoulders slumped. “Fine. Let’s see what we can find close by.”

* * *

 

Shiro frowned, looking over at Allura, who stood behind the pilot seat of the Black Lion. Allura had a similar look on her face, looking out the Black Lion’s eyes before she gasped in surprise.

“Princess?” Shiro put a hand on her arm, worried.

“I…” She opened her mouth several times wordlessly before finally she spoke. “I don’t know. I just had a strange feeling, one I’ve never felt before.”

“What do you mean?”

Allura didn’t answer, looking away into the distance, where he could just see Zobos in his Lion’s periphery, as if trying to see where Keith and Lance were.

“Do you think whatever that feeling was had to do with the static on Keith’s and Lance’s end?”

Allura didn’t look like she even heard it until Shiro heard a quiet answer. “I hope not.”

* * *

 

Lance and Keith wandered around, making a perimeter with both Lions roughly in the middle. The bowl was quite large, because after hours of walking, they were still about four miles from the edge, at least according to Keith. The vibrant green grass and the lighter shade of green dirt was still a shock to the Paladins, even after the past two years seeing new, weird, and amazing planets.

They found the bowl was mostly forest, with a few clearings and wild fields, but no smoke in any direction. No way to see if any sentient life was around this part of the planet, or on Zobos at all.

Finally, the sun was setting when Lance called it quits, leaning against the nearest tree with a groan. Keith looked over at the noise.

“I’m done, man. My legs are jelly.” Lance spoke before Keith could even open his mouth. “Let’s get back to our Lions and rest. Can’t do much in the dark.”

Keith looked like he wanted to argue before he just sighed and nodded, and the two made their way back to where their Lions lay. “Should we make a fire?”

Lance looked around at the darkening sky, hundreds of thousands of stars starting to pop in as the sun left to visit the other side of the planet. “Yeah, sounds like a good idea. I’ll help.”

The two soon were able to make a small fire with the fallen dry branches from the trees. They huddled close to the warmth, taking off their armour after finding it too heavy with all the walking they had done.

“There’s rations in each of our Lions that should last us both a month easily, maybe more if we ration them more,” Lance stated, rubbing his cold hands together. With the sun gone the air got colder, and his breath came in small puffs. They had taken off their helmets after it was made apparent there was plenty of oxygen coming from the alien trees.

“We have our armour and bayards, so we aren’t defenseless.” Keith said after, poking at the fire to keep it alive. “But how do we get off this planet?”

“No idea.” Lance said honestly. What would the use be if he lied or tried to sound optimistic if he couldn’t think of a way to get in contact with the others? “Just, I dunno, wait for someone to notice our radio silence and come looking for us?”

“What if they do that and the same thing happens to them as what happened to our Lions?” Keith retorted.

“I don’t know Keith, I’m just spitballing here. I have no idea how to get out of here or getting in contact with the others or what might happen if they try getting to us,” Lance snapped, exhaustion and worrying about their predicament making him exasperated with the Red Paladin. “That would be the best case scenario, them finding us and getting us out of here fast without whatever happened to Red and Blue happening to them.”

Keith just looked at him before he turned his gaze back to the fire. He opened his mouth to speak before a look of surprise came over him and he swatted at his neck.

“Oh don’t tell me there’s alien _mosquitos_ here!” Lance looked around, flapping hands around himself as if to ward off whatever bug had bit Keith.

The other just looked surprised still, rubbing the small mark. “Lance, seriously?” One of his eyebrows touched the fringe of his bangs. “It was just a bug bite.”

“Yeah, but you forget, what if these bugs have stuff in them that’s deadly to humans?” Lance gasped. “What if you caught space malaria and you’re going to die and leave me alone on this planet?”

“Lance, I’m fine.” Keith rolled his eyes, unimpressed. “I’m not going to die from something as small as a bug bite.”

“That’s what the Europeans thought when they went to the Americas!” Lance cried. He was being overdramatic, he knew, but he needed to do something to curb his boredom and worry.

Keith groaned, putting a hand over his face before bringing both hands down close to the fire. “You’re such a drama king.”

“Thanks, but I was serious. What if you get sick?”

“I’m not going to get sick. In the past two years we’ve been in space, I’ve only gotten sick maybe once. Meanwhile, the rest of you have gotten sick at least three times every year.”

“Well, excuse me for not have a fabulous immune system like you,” Lance prodded.

Keith opened his mouth to speak before closing it again, shaking his head.

They were quiet for a couple minutes before Keith stood up. “You should get some sleep, I’ll keep watch. I’ll wake you in a couple vargas to switch.”

“What? Why do we need a watch?” Lance sat up straight.

“We don’t know what’s out there at night,” Keith answered. “I don’t want to wake up as some alien’s meal.”

It was a fair point, and Lance nodded reluctantly, standing up and heading over to Saphira to sleep. He’d stay in the small compartment behind the cockpit he had found several months before on his first long distance mission in her.

He called out a goodnight to Keith, who had moved closer to the Blue Lion, sitting on one of her large hind legs, before making his bed and falling asleep almost instantly.

Chapter done!


	3. Chapter 3

Lance was awoken to someone shaking him and the sound of a wet cough. His eyes snapped open to see Keith looking down at him before turning away to cover his mouth with the crook of his elbow to cough for a couple seconds.

“Wake up, your turn to keep watch,” The Red Paladin said after the coughing fit ceased, sounding tired.

Lance sat up, stretching his arms over his head and yawning, smacking his lips when he was done. He was pretty well rested. He wondered how long he had slept, but as the two left Lance’s Lion, he couldn’t really tell, since the sky was still dark and coloured only with the multitude of stars above them.

“How long was I asleep?” he asked Keith.

The other shrugged. “Maybe about five vargas? Seems the day/night cycle is longer here.”

“Wow, sweet.” Lance smiled before he frowned at Keith, who began to cough again. “I thought you said you don’t get sick.”

“Something’s stuck in my throat,” the other defended. “I’m fine.”

Lance squinted at him for a couple seconds before he pushed him towards Red. “Fine, then sleep. I’ll wake you up either in the morning or in five vargas.”

“Fine, fine, stop.” Keith walked faster away from Lance until he vanished in his Lion.

The watch was boring. Lance wasn’t sure if he heard crickets or not, but he had to be happy it wasn’t silent. The sounds of the space crickets or whatever provided a sort of background noise for Lance and stopped him from feeling like he was going to go crazy.

The sun rose after three vargas of Lance on watch, and he stretched again like a cat finding a sunspot. It was weak, a winter sun, but still provided enough warmth to the Blue Paladin that he couldn’t see his own breath now. He smiled, finding the sunrise on this planet to be very calming.

When the sun had risen higher, Lance decided it was time to wake Keith up. He headed over to Red, walking inside when he paused, hearing coughing again. Frowning, Lance went further in, following the sound until he found Keith in his own compartment, body curled on his side, practically coughing onto his knees.

Lance stopped several steps away from Keith, looking at him with wide eyes. He had a lilac tint to his skin, his Galra genes obviously acting up. His forehead was shiny with sweat, and his eyes were screwed shut as he seemed to be trying to hack up a lung.

“Keith!” Lance cried, finally getting his body to move as he knelt beside the other, putting a hand to his forehead before snatching it back. His skin was hot to the touch, burning up. “Quiznak, Keith, man, gotta wake up.”

Keith’s eyes fluttered open, the coughing letting up. He blinked several times before he appeared to focus on Lance, staring at him, his dark eyes seeming to glow. If Lance hadn’t seen this before, the last time Keith had gotten sick and had his Galra genetics act up, he would have shrieked.

As it was, he was only mildly put-off by the Red Paladin’s eyes.

“Keith, wake up, man. You okay?”

Keith blinked several times before he nodded. “Yeah. I think so.”

Both knew he was lying. He looked like a washed out Galra minus their cat-like ears - from what Lance could remember, Keith’s physical body didn’t alter, just the colours.

“Okay, stay there, I’m going to get the blankets from Blue. Maybe we can sweat out whatever you got.” Lance stood up when a sweaty hand wrapped around his ankle.

“I’m fine, I swear.” Keith tried to sound honest but his appearance gave him away.

“Really? Mr. Purple Man is ‘fine’? What’s your definition of fine, because I don’t think ours align.” Lance carefully moved his foot out of Keith’s reach.

Keith just glared at him before another short coughing fit hit him, cueing Lance to leave to get the blankets.

When he returned, Keith was asleep, his eyebrows furrowed in what looked like concentration, and his body curled up to the side. His forehead was even shinier, making Lance feel like the fever was getting worse, or he was trying to sweat it out by himself.

He knelt by the Red Paladin’s head, putting his blanket over him, just like he had done with Katie, or for his siblings back on Earth when they got sick. He smoothed the thick comforter-type blanket over Keith’s frame and paused to feel his forehead.

Keith was burning up, but Lance couldn’t tell if it was from the Galra genes or from the bite that made him sick. He distantly remembered the last time Keith had gotten sick, back in the Castle. He had the same reaction, his skin turning a pale lilac and his eyes would glow a bit from his Galra blood mixing with his human blood as if in an attempt to chase out the virus that made him sick in the first place. But Lance couldn’t remember if the Galra blood made his body temperature higher than what was humanly safe, and he worried his lip as he took his hand away from Keith’s forehead.

He sighed, hoping the fever would leave soon.

* * *

 

Lance honestly couldn’t tell if he was getting better or not.

It was halfway through the day when Keith woke up, his fever still present, but he looked more aware of everything. At least, it seemed that way.

“Do I have to go to school?” Lance jumped at Keith’s voice, turning to face him, finding the other was looking at him with those glowing eyes, expression like a kicked puppy. “I never see you anymore.”

“Uh, dude? What are you talking about?” Lance questioned. “We don’t go to school anymore, and you’ve seen me every day for like the past two years.”

Keith frowned. “Did you take us out of school? Won’t Miss Kerralin be mad at us?”

Lance opened his mouth to question Keith further, but then he noticed the glazed look in his eyes. He wasn’t actually seeing Lance, but some person from his mind. Who that could be was beyond the Blue Paladin, but the person seemed to have been someone Keith looked up to when they were younger anyway.

“Of all the times to get sick and start seeing things…” Lance breathed, shaking his head.

The rest of the day passed relatively in that manner. Keith was awake, but not entirely in the present. He kept talking to Lance as if the Blue Paladin was some other person, and from what he could gather, Keith seemed to think he was back on Earth, just a couple years away from being able to join the Garrison.

Lance helped keep Keith fed, not letting him out of the cocoon of blankets because the fever was still rolling through his system, as well as keeping him as hydrated as he dared. He knew very little about illnesses besides what he would do when he got sick, but as the sun set, Lance could tell this was very different from his own illnesses.

The sun was winking out when Keith said a familiar name, and he jolted in place to look over at him.

“Do you really have to go on this mission, Shiro?” He mumbled, eyes half-closed with sleep. “You’ll be gone for like, two years.”

Lance frowned, sitting up and looking at the Red Paladin, hoping to hear more, but nothing came forth until he saw the rise and fall of the other’s chest even out.

He was a bit confused. He had known Keith knew Shiro before their leader escaped the Galra, but he never really knew how long, or why they knew each other beforehand, but it seemed apparently the two had known each other even before the Kerberos mission.

Continuing to frown, Lance settled down across from Keith, feeling like nothing would happen to them during the second night if nothing happened the first. He tried to ignore the swirling thoughts and questions, knowing he wouldn’t be able to get them answered until Keith was better, and he hoped the Red Paladin would get better soon.

Chapter done!


	4. Chapter 4

Allura could tell Shiro was getting worried about Lance and Keith. Neither of them could get into contact with them, nor with Coran back on the Ship, or even with Pidge and Hunk.

It had been a full rotation when Shiro and Allura found a quaint little village, and they headed over in the Black Lion. They halted her on the fringes of the village to not freak out whatever alien species lived here. Allura and Coran weren’t certain about their reaction, as the planets had no data in the Castle’s database, which was the entire reason the Paladins and herself had split up to explore them.

They reached the village to meet the aliens, finding willowy creatures with bleached white skin and elongated limbs. The villagers noticed the two new people and blinked at them with their multifaceted eyes.

“Who are you?” a youngling asked, barely the height of Shiro’s knees.

Allura smiled pleasantly and knelt down to look the youngling in the eye. “Well, I am Princess Allura of the late planet Altea, and this is the Black Paladin of Voltron. We’ve been exploring this planet to see if the Galra have been around or if there were any lifeforms here.”

“Oh?” The youngling tilted his head to the side. “You should speak to the council, then. They normally deal with outsiders.”

Allura looked at the youngling curiously before nodding with a smile. “Of course, may you lead us to them? We might have a lot to discuss.”

The youngling seemed to perk up at that and nodded. Once Allura straightened up, he grabbed both her and Shiro’s wrists, walking ahead of them like an excitable child. He brought the two to a small hut-like structure, where four elderly-looking aliens sat in a square, having been talking amongst themselves until the three appeared.

“Sir, Ma’am, you have visitors.” The youngling said, gesturing to Allura and Shiro, before skittering away as quick as one of the mice.

One - a male of the species with long plaits of off-white hair flat against his head and beady rust red eyes - turned to view the two.

“We don’t mean to intrude,” Allura said placatingly. “We were just exploring when we found your village and the youngling that brought us here found us.”

“What are you exploring for?” The red-eyed elder asked.

“The ship we were on didn’t have any information on the three planets in this system, so my crew and I were intrigued as to why,” Allura answered honestly. The elders didn’t seem to be malevolent for the moment, so she tried to stay diplomatic. “Although my scanners were able to only say that two of the planets had sentient life. We were curious to meet you.”

“Other planets?” Another elder asked.

It was the female elder than answered, her eyes closed and she was nodding in understanding. “Ah, you mean Nunov and Zobos. Yes, we pride ourselves in hiding away most knowledge of our system.”

“Really? May I ask why that is?” Allura asked, noticing how Shiro shifted from foot to foot.

“I cannot say for Nunov, but we Leotuves are of simple nature. We avoid visitors if we can help it,” the female elder answered. “Our planet Oswara, along with her sister planets, has abilities to hide away from most technology. Zobos even more so.”

“Oh, apologies then. We did not mean to intrude.” Allura clasped her hands together in front of her. “But I must say, I hope you and this system remains free of the Galra.”

“The Galra?” The fourth and final elder questioned. “What in Sollkar’s name is that?”

Allura looked over to Shiro in mild surprise, eyebrows raised.

Shiro was the one to explain as briefly and concisely as possible the situation, with Allura providing extra details, but she mostly simply watched the elders for their reactions.

But the four Leotuve elders seemed mostly unmoved by what was said until Allura finished, asking if they would ever wish for Voltron’s assistance if the Galra did manage to get to this system.

“Thank you, but we must decline.” The first elder spoke. “Anything you might have will be of no use with our atmospheres, from what I have heard.”

“All technology is rendered useless for several rotations and by your descriptions most of these ‘Galra’ are technology,” the female Leotuve elder continued.

Allura paused, glancing over at Shiro as if to see if he had the same thought. “Rendered useless?” She questioned, turning back to the elders as she did.

“Yes. Each planet in our system has a high electromagnetic field. Most technology will shut off for several rotations on Zobos as soon as they reach the atmosphere. Here and, I believe, Nunov, there’s lesser magnetism but distance communication outside our respective atmospheres is impossible,” the third elder elaborated.

Allura frowned, but nodded once. “I, uhm, thank you very much for answering our questions. If you ever are in need, do not be afraid to find us. Voltron will always be there to protect the universe.”

The female chuckled as if she found what Allura said to be amusing before the elders all stood up and bowed their heads.

“I pray to Sollkar we do not need to meet again,” the first said not unkindly. Allura thought the meeting went well, for even the unfriendly natives were gracious at least.

She and Shiro left the elders, heading back to where the youngling had found them, quiet and deep in their thoughts. It wasn’t until they reached Black that Shiro turned to look at the Princess.

“Do you possibly think the magnetism is what caused the cut off of communication between us and the boys?” he asked.

Allura looked over at Black for a tick before she answered. “It does seem like a possibility, but we might have to wait a bit more before we know for certain. By their information, it seems the magnetism takes time to either adjust to the technology or something along those lines.”

“You sure, Princess?”

She nodded. “I believe the Leotuves. They mean no harm, so why would they lie?”

Shiro looked uncertain but he nodded, and the two headed into Black, agreeing to a brief rest before they returned to the Castle to see how Pidge and Hunk were doing.

Chapter done!


	5. Chapter 5

“Woah, Hunk, check your readings!” If Pidge had been in a cartoon, her eyes would have been star-shaped in excitement. Hunk saw her hands blur just under the camera, checking something inside Green. “The electromagnetism readings are off the charts!”

“Really?” Hunk turned his attention to the screens inside Amber, getting the readings up to see if the other was right.

They were approaching the planet Nunov, having taken a day just travelling there because of the distance, entering its atmosphere in their Lions. Both looked in awe at the readings they received about the planet, and Pidge was going a mile a minute about what they were registering.

“This is incredible, the entire planet is like a giant magnet, even more than back h-!” She cried before a splutter of static came between them. Hunk looked at the screen that showed Pidge’s face and saw it full of pixels for a couple seconds.

“Wait, Pidge? You didn’t come through too well just then.” Hunk called, having Amber turn her head to see Green just in time to see the other Lion shake their head like getting rid of a fly. “You don’t think this much magnetism could affect the Lions, do you?”

“-uh? Oh my gosh, that would be insane.” Pidge’s face became clear again and she was looking over at Hunk with narrow eyes. “I… What if it does? Do we try to go to the surface or go back?”

Hunk looked around the cockpit, wondering if his Lion would be okay. “We should see. My Lion’s still good to go to the surface, but we should make sure we keep constant contact so we’ll be able to tell if the electromagnetism is too much for even our Lions.”

Pidge frowned, but she nodded and the two directed their Lions to the surface of Nunov, finding a large clearing before a dark sea.

Once Amber landed, Hunk went through some more readings, checking the atmosphere again. “There’s a high percentage of oxygen, probably coming from the ground itself. Wow, it’s like a giant tree planet, essentially.”

“Really? Wow, I have that one in my bingo card.” Pidge laughed, searching her cockpit before pulling up a holograph with badly translated Altean for the Bingo game the Paladins created about the planets they visit.

“Of course you do, Guardian of the Forest.” Hunk teased, laughing when the younger girl scowled and dropped the Bingo card out of frame. “Aw, c’mon, Katie, you know it’s true. I know for a fact both Keith and Lance have their Guardian titles somewhere on their cards too. Heck, I have desert planet on mine.”

Pidge still scowled at Hunk before turning away, letting out a huff. “C’mon, this planet seems safe enough to explore.”

Hunk chuckled, nodding. “Sure, sure, I’ll be out in a moment.” He waved a hand and the screen of his fellow Paladin’s face disappeared.

He looked at the readings again, checking whatever else Amber and Green had been able to pick out on their way to the surface. They were close to what looked like a colony, just a couple miles to the south of where they landed, and the expanse of dark water in front of them. It was a very rich planet, full of oxygen thanks to the tree-like qualities of the terrain, and looked relatively safe.

Hunk got out of his Lion a couple minutes later, storing the information into his suit where he kept all the other notes on the planets they’d been to over the past couple years. Looking around, he spotted the bright white and green of Pidge’s suit sitting by the water, poking at it like a kid poked at a sand castle.

“Where should we look first?” Hunk asked, walking over to the younger Paladin, glancing around the beach they had landed on.

“There’s the colony to the south of us, we should check them out.” Pidge waved a hand to her left, but her other hand kept poking the water. “But this is so weird.”

“It’s an alien planet, Pidge, everything is weird.” Hunk chuckled.

“That’s not what I mean, Hunk.” The younger huffed. “The water feels weird.”

“Yeah? Hang on, I got the scans in my suit, I can pull them up.” He tapped on his gauntlet, getting the readings up and extending his arm for Pidge to read. “It’s because the water is so dense. I think… Yeah, it’s like jello dense!”

He sat down beside his friend, reaching out to poke the water with a smile. “Woah, liquid jello, awesome!”

“But that doesn’t make sense! Liquid gelatin is supposed to be like regular water, not like this!” Pidge exclaimed, poking the water accusingly.

“Pidge. It’s an alien planet. A _tree_ alien planet. It’s not going to be anything like back home,” Hunk reminded with a smile, bumping Pidge with his shoulder. “Now, c’mon, we should get going with the mission.”

“Fine, fine,” she scoffed, kicking her feet at the water before standing up with Hunk and looking south. “So, we have no idea what this colony will hold, we’ve lost outside contact, and Green sounds weird in my head.”

Hunk paused mid-step, looking back at the two Lions. “Weird? Alien weird or different from normal weird?”

“Different. She sounds like, you remember bad reception on earth? Robot voice?”

“Yeah? That is weird…” he trailed off, focusing on Amber’s voice, but she rumbled softly in his head, no bad reception for them. “All the more reason to hurry and get this mission over with, right?”

Pidge nodded and they both started walking towards the colony.

It was a long walk, but neither complained anymore about all the excessive exercise. After all the training with the other Paladins - and Allura’s tiring workout regime - the two were as fit as fiddles.

They reached the colony around late-afternoon for the planet, the sun low on the horizon. It was small, much smaller than either of them thought it would be. The buildings looked like they were meant to hold people Pidge’s height pre-growth spurt, windows tinted a soft brown and pathways made of the same colour.

Milling around the place were short, stocky creatures. Hunk was surprised to see they had no hair at all, but dressed in what looked like soft cloth, and as he looked at the creatures, he was vaguely reminded of Shay and the Balmerans. He noticed they had certain rock-like skin as he and Pidge entered the colony, which made him wonder if there was a chance the two species could be related.

One creature noticed the two with a call of surprise that attracted the entire group of natives  to their arrival.

Pidge awkwardly waved her hand. “Uh, hi?”

The creatures started to crowd the two curiously, small eyes wide as they looked over the newcomers.

“We don’t often see many aliens.” One croaked, its voice throaty with age. “What brings you to Euvis?”

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think the toughest part of the entire bang, besides lack of motivation at times, was figuring out aliens/alien names/alien place names, and remembering them when i would refer back to them. The amount of times I had to go back to remember which planet each duo went to, oof.


	6. Chapter 6

Lance woke up to more coughing in the middle of the night again. He sighed wearily, looking over to the Red Paladin before freezing at the shiny, bright yellow eyes glowing back at him like a cat at night.

“Keith?” Lance tried, sitting up to face the other better.

Keith didn’t respond, didn’t really do anything to suggest he even heard Lance speak. Instead he blinked slowly and then closed his eyes.

“I hate being sick…” He suddenly mumbled, sounding much younger than he was.

“I hate you being sick too, man,” Lance muttered in reply, “You get weird.”

Keith mumbled more before falling asleep, leaving the Blue Paladin to his own devices. He was annoyed, though. There wasn’t much he could do to help Keith besides hope the half-Galra could sweat out the fever, and to keep a close eye on him until he got over this.

He leant against the Red Lion’s cockpit chair, leaning his head back and closing his eyes, hoping to hear Saphira again, but still he heard nothing. It baffled him that there was something in the entire universe that could cut his connection with her, but this planet seemed full of surprises.

Knowing he wasn’t going to get anywhere, Lance stood up and did some stretches, looking outside to see the dawn approaching with a grim expression on his face.

“Man I hope the others are doing okay,” he said quietly.

* * *

 

Hunk and Pidge stayed in the village for the night, talking with the elders and anyone else who wanted to speak with them. Both sides were clearly interested in the other, as they talked most of the night and learned from one another.

The Ul’zulp - the name the rock-like creatures called themselves - were fairly smart despite their appearance, and extremely curious about the universe around them, but had yet to make space travel passed Oswara.

Hunk had asked if there was any way they could be related to another species on a living planet, wanting to know if they could actually be related to the Balmerans.

“Oh no,” Quilla - the first Ul’zulp they spoke to the day before - shook his head, “That is not likely. While we have had living planets pass us by, that has been before our species even became sentient.”

Hunk deflated. “Well, your species is so close to another species we know of,” he explained. “You both are incredibly rock-like in terms of skin. But the species I know of are much taller, taller than me even.”

“Really?” A youngling looked up with wide eyes, obviously fascinated.

“Yep. They’re really cool.” Pidge said. “But I’m curious, how have you never heard of Voltron, or even the Galra?”

“Well, our planets are mystical.” Quilla explained. “There is a field around our blessed Nunov, protecting us from harm. But the downside is we cannot find a way to explore. Only our sister planet Oswara have been able to visit us frequently. We cannot yet build our own machines to fly.”

“Well, there must be some way.” Pidge muttered, her fingers playing a nonsensical tune on her helmet between her legs.

“We will find a way someday. But in the meantime, we are simply happy to be spared from the horrors you have obviously been through. These Galra sound even more terrifying than our most ferocious monster.”

“Yeah, they’re not fun.” Hunk agreed, before remembering something, looking through his suit for the small pocket he placed the call button in, pulling it out and showing it to Quilla. “But even so, we urge you to take this. I’m not sure how reliable it’ll work with the electromagnetism surrounding your planet, but this will the best way to call us if you ever need Voltron to save you.”

“Preferably saving you from the Galra, or something you cannot save yourself from.” Pidge quipped.

“Uh, yeah, preferably that.” Hunk chuckled, giving the call button to Quilla, who took it with a curious expression.

“We will take it. But I pray to our sun that it will never be called upon. We enjoy our life as it is.” He replied, holding the button with care.

Hunk smiled, and nodded. He agreed with the sentiment, and always hoped, every time they gave out a button, that they would never need to use it.

He and Pidge then stood up, bowing to Quilla and the other Ul’zulp that had kept them company their entire stay.

“Oh, where are you going?” The same youngling cried, grabbing onto Pidge’s waist.

Pidge went red, uncomfortable with the sudden embrace, and she looked to Hunk to help.

“We have to get going now. It’s a long journey back to our ship. It was great talking with all of you, it really was.” He said, squatting to be eye-to-eye with the youngling. “We’d love to stay, but we can’t. There’s gunna be a planet needing saving elsewhere and Voltron is the only way to ensure the universe is safe.”

The youngling let go with a sad expression. “Okay. But will you ever visit?”

“We’ll try. Maybe once the fighting is done.” Pidge said, putting her helmet back on as she took steps to the edge of the village, Hunk following her with a wave to villagers.

“That was a lot, huh?” He asked once they reached past the village.

“We learned a lot, but, yeah.” Pidge nodded deeply. “How can they be still in the mystical age? They’ve been visited by aliens already!”

Hunk laughed, shaking his head. “I don’t know either. But let’s let them stay in that age for awhile. They’ll get to the science soon. Who knows, maybe when we’re older they’ll already be in space travel.”

Pidge laughed, nodding again. “I guess. Anyway, c’mon, let’s get back to the others. We might be the last team to return.”

“Yeah, we have another day of piloting before we get to the Castle of Lions.” Hunk groaned, the younger patting his shoulder.

“This time you can pick the songs we belt out to.” She said.

“Deal!”

Chapter done!


	7. Chapter 7

About midday Lance hears Keith start talking again. He was grumbling about something and at first Lance didn’t take any notice to it until he heard his name amidst the nonsensical muttering.

“Course the first person I try to make friends with hates me. Lance looked like a good guy, but whenever I try…” Keith sighs. “Even saying hi makes him just glare at me. Bet he thinks I’m a teacher’s pet or something because of my grades. Shiro, it’s not fair.”

Lance frowned, remembering back to the time Keith must think he was in now. It must have been before Shiro and the Holts had been captured, but they were still in school. He knew he had been a bit of a jerk to Keith at first, because he had just been so _perfect._ His grades, his class, his looks. Everything about him was perfect, and when he tried to talk to others, he never really looked genuine. Lance looked ashamed, remembering how he had acted towards him. He made him into a rival, to beat at any costs, without ever trying to see if he really was someone to rival against.

“I’m sorry, man. I was a big asshole back in the Garrison. Lance back then just followed the trend, and no one really knew you.” He told the delirious paladin, hoping he understood.

He wasn’t given a response. Keith had fallen back asleep. Sighing, Lance checked his forehead again. It was still warm, hot even, so he had to hope it would break soon or else they were both going to be in big trouble.

Besides the bugs on the planet, it didn’t seem to be populated with much. Lance idly wondered if this was a new planet, like Earth before the dinosaurs or mammals evolved. It soon led him to wondering about how their appearance on the surface would change the wildlife.

The day had gone by at a snail’s pace, but Lance was able to keep busy with wiping Keith’s shiny forehead and letting his mind wander. He would also go for short walks around the woods, helmet on to keep an ear on his sick fellow Paladin.

It was on the fifth day that they had been stuck on the planet of Zobos, while Lance was walking through the woods, picking up fallen sticks for an evening fire - it was getting too chilly for just the single blanket he kept to himself - when he heard murmuring from Keith back at camp.

“It’s not like that, Shiro. He’s rude and a flirt and never gives me the time of day. Besides, I think he’s straight.” Lance dropped the stick he had bent over to pick up in surprise. “Why do I do this to myself? How did I even do this to myself?”

Lance straightened, perplexed. “Do what to yourself?” He asked aloud, not even sure Keith could hear him because his helmet was only beside his head, not on it.

Whether he heard Lance or not, the Red Paladin still answered the question: “Crushes are stupid.” The rest was garbled into murmurs before the light snore came back. Lance hadn’t noticed, his face heating up.

_There was no way._ He thought, shaking his head. His feet moved by themselves, his mind just trying to figure out if he had heard correctly or if he was also going delirious. Had he been bitten by an alien mosquito without realizing it? Maybe he had been bitten at the same time as Keith and this entire thing was a dream or something.

The smallest part of his brain reminded him he hadn’t been bitten, as his legs had him already approach the Red Lion and slip into her head, sticks still somehow in his hands.

Keith was awake, the glow of his eyes dimmer than before, and they focused on Lance.

* * *

 

The trip back to the Castle was long and loud, filled with off-key singing of horrible songs that were filled with puns and play on words. Both young Paladins enjoyed the fun, and even if Pidge said she hated his song choices, Hunk knew she enjoyed the silliness of them.

Pidge and Green reached  their hangar first, saying over the comms that she was going to give in their report to Coran before getting something to eat.

“I’ll meet you in the mess hall then. Wonder if Shiro and Allura have gotten back yet.” He mused as the two shut off communications.

He got his answer in the mess hall. The two leaders were talking over untouched food, and both looked over when he entered the room.

“Ah, Hunk. I hope the mission wasn’t too difficult.” Allura said pleasantly, although it didn’t reach her eyes all the way.

“Yeah, Pidge is giving all the info we got on Nunov and the people we met there.” He answered, grabbing a plate and squirting a small helping of goo onto it. “But there was something up with the planet. It was like electromagnets or something. Pidge said her connection with Green got fuzzy, like a bad internet connection.”

“Really?” Shiro’s eyebrows furrowed, and turned to look at Allura with one of those leader-silent-conversation looks.

“Why do you say Pidge specifically? Did it not happen to you and Yellow as well?” Allura asked.

He shook his head. “No, my connection was fine throughout. There was a bit of resistance but not much else.” He took a spork and dug into his meal.

“Peculiar.”

“Yeah, that is weird.” Shiro said, pushing his untouched plate away. “Why were you unaffected when all the other Lions felt something on the planets?”

“What do you mean?”

“The Black Lion was fine for the most part, but we were told if we had stayed the electromagnetism would have affected her too.” The Princess explained briefly.

“I felt something as we were leaving the upper atmosphere, like there had been a muffled connection between me and her before it was suddenly clear again.” Shiro shrugged, looking uncertain.

Hunk scratched his head, looking thoughtful. “Really? I never noticed anything.”

“Maybe you’d be able to help then. Something about Yellow makes it harder to allow the electromagnetism to hinder the connection.” Shiro looked again at Allura before turning back to Hunk, his expression open. “Hunk, do you think you could reach Zubos and find out what happened to Keith and Lance? We haven’t been able to speak with them since they had reached the planet’s upper atmosphere.”

“Huh? Why not?” He put down his spork, worried. “Did something happen to them?”

“We don’t really know. We cannot get into contact with them, and if they are to be believed, the inhabitants of Oswara said that particular planet cannot handle mechanical things, forcing them to power down for several days before they are able to work again. But if you and Yellow can make it down to the surface, even for a little while, maybe you can give or get a message from them about the situation.” Allura suggested.

“Maybe. It doesn’t hurt to try.”

* * *

 

A varga later, Hunk was back in Amber, flying to the planet his friends had apparently been stuck on for days now. It was a shorter flight than the length it took to reach Nunov, but he went slow, all possible readings up along the edges of the screen, within a flick of the wrist to bring up if they flashed.

He was still well above the orbit of the planet when the flashes started. Heavy magnetic fields throughout the planet in front of him, pulling at his Lion even from here. Soon after, other readings started popping onto the screen, and it was hard to read and understand everything.

“It’s okay. We can do this, girl.” Hunk patted the controls lightly, and he felt her calming presence in his head. “Let’s head in, but carefully.”

They begun approaching the atmosphere, the flashing of the new readings distracting, but Hunk focused on the strangely-saturated planet surface until Amber pulled him out of it. It was her pressure, painful on his mind and he jerked back, stopping their approach.

“What? What is it?” He asked, looking around the cockpit, seeing a couple bright red flashes but they weren’t anything new at the moment.

It was then that he saw the pixelatedness of the screen in front of him, like someone hadn’t quite rendered the hologram properly and he understood. They were still high above the planet and yet it was already causing problems. The planet really had harsher electromagnetism than Nunov, if it could affect them from so far away.

“Okay. Okay, what do you think we should do? Go as far in as we can or go back?” Hunk was indecisive. He wanted to find Lance and Keith and make sure his friends were okay, but he also didn’t want to get caught in the planet and be unable to escape for what sounded like a week or something.

Amber rumbled, understanding the dilemma. But ultimately, she let the image of the ship be her answer. Hunk sighed, knowing she was probably right, and headed back, opening comms with the ship to tell him of what he was doing.

Chapter done!


	8. Chapter 8

“Uhhh,” Lance eloquently said, finding it hard to look away from Keith’s eyes, distantly noticing they were not only dimmer than before but looked more distinctly human. He could only hope the fever had broke and he was getting better already. “Hey, Keith. Buddy. Man.”

Keith simply looked at him intensely before breaking the eye contact as he doubled over to cough in the direction of his knees.

“Woah, hey, sit down before you hurt yourself. If you really did get over the fever, you still need to keep your strength so all the illness leaves.” Lance spoke without thinking, his hands up already to push the other young man down. “What are you even doing up, anyway? You should be resting.”

Keith made a face and shook his head. “No, I feel like I haven’t stood up in weeks. Anyway, I’m feeling better.”

“You sure, man? You’re still lilac.” He pointed out, making Keith search his covered arms before slowly realizing the only bits of skin he was showing was his face and began looking for a reflection of himself.

“Ugh, gross.” Keith finally found a reflective surface to see his lilac-tinged skin before turning to Lance. “Whatever. Where are we anyway?”

“Uh? Zobos, still. Both Lions still won’t wake up, and I’ve been trying to talk to Blue since you got sick.”

“How long was I sick?” Keith breaks up his question with a short coughing fit, and even Lance had to agree it sounded better than it had been the other day.

“Ah, uh, in this planet’s rotations, about four days and nights. But the days and nights are a lot longer than the ship’s cycles or Earth’s rotations so could have been longer.” A small part of him wanted to ask about what he had heard over the comms, about what had sounded like a crush, but he wasn’t sure what sort of answer he wanted to hear either way so he kept quiet.

“Quiznak. The Lions’ haven’t woken up at all?”

Lance shook his head before pausing, looking around the interior of Red’s cockpit carefully as he poked at Saphira’s consciousness and felt a weak sort of response back. “Oh, maybe they might be waking up soon.”

“Lucky timing then.” Keith looked amused.

* * *

 

It was when the sun was setting when the two Lions woke up, and their presence in the Paladins’ minds was a welcoming feeling. Neither spent long after that on the planet’s surface, and through crackling communications, they drove their Lions away from the planet.

Lance had never been so happy to feel Saphira’s soothing presence in his mind, reminding him of the waters he grew up listening to. He wanted to hug her, despite being a small thing in her eyes.

As the two Paladins and their Lions left the atmosphere, they felt the weird, unexplainable static that surrounded Red and Blue dissipated before leaving altogether and they were able to pick up the Castle of Lion’s signal.

Keith was the one who went about getting the Castle’s attention, getting Coran almost immediately.

“My word, is it good to hear from you boys again!” Coran exclaimed. Lance could easily imagine the older alien with tears in his eyes from how emotional he sounded.

“It’s good to hear you too, Coran. Sorry we couldn’t get into contact for however long, something was we-”

“Ah, yes, it’s fine. We learned why the ship had no records on these planets before.” The Altean said. “Electromagnetism, and a ridiculously high amount on the planet you searched. We had no idea until the other two teams spoke with the residences of their respective planets.”

“That’s what it was, huh? Wow, that’s pretty impressive.” Keith commented, and from the corner of his eye, Lance saw the Red Lion make her way to the Castle, back to her hangar. “Anyway, we’re back.”

He ended with another coughing fit, which brought Lance into the conversation.

“Hey, Coran, think you can look Keith over? He got bit by an alien mosquito and kinda got sick while we were stuck the past few days.” Lance explained, getting into Saphira’s hangar and letting her sit down finally.

“Oh, he got sick? Of course, won’t take too long, but you’ll have to go give the information you managed to find to Allura so she can put it into the databanks.” Coran said through the comms before it ended with a final note as the orange-haired man left to find Keith.

Lance in the meantime did as the Altean said and went off to find wherever the Princess was to give the little bit of info they were able to keep – he was honest in saying he was more concerned with Keith’s sickness than looking over the planet they had gotten stranded on. Allura seemed understanding, and they got the info into the Castle’s databanks so if they ever had to return to this system, they would know what these planets could do.

* * *

 

Lance knew they were avoiding each other, but he couldn’t figure out why Keith would have a reason to avoid him, and after about a week of avoiding, he had to talk to the Red Paladin because this was not working out.

While he hadn’t meant to corner the other young man in his room, Lance couldn’t figure out a better time that wouldn’t let Keith run off somewhere, or a better place where no one else would be able to overhear.

So there they were, in Keith’s barren room, the Red Paladin sitting on his bed with a confused expression, and Lance by the door playing with his jacket.

“Uh, hey?” Keith questioned. He looked much better now, though his skin seemed to keep the lilac tinge now, like the alien version of vitiligo.

Lance waved in reply, still trying to figure out his thoughts before he simply just blurted it out. “We need to talk, man. About, uh, when you were, uhm, sick.”

“When I was sick? What happened when I was sick?” Keith’s face became a bit guarded, crossing his arms over his chest.

“You kept, ugh. You were like sleep-talking most of the time.” Keith just narrowed his eyes in response, and Lance continued. “You were talking to Shiro for a lot of it, thinking I was him. And, you sorta, uhm, you talked about me.”

There was a palpable tension in the air.

“What did I say about you?” Keith asked, his tone not something Lance had heard come from him before.

“You, uh, you said something about a crush.”

And just like that, the tension was cut. Keith looked defeated, and muttered to himself that Lance couldn’t hear very well.

“Did you really like me back in the Garrison?” Lance asked, but Keith gave no answer. “C’mon dude, I took care of you for almost a week while you were sick.”

“Nope, don’t remember, didn’t happen.” There was a mix of vengeance and joking in his tone and Lance just groaned.

“Come on, man, that was two years ago. Let it go.”

“Not until you admit you remember that moment.”

“I really don’t remember it!” Lance groaned. “No, we aren’t fighting about this. Not right now.”

“Then what are you doing here?”

“I’m here because,” Lance started losing steam in his head and his words trailed off, “because, because I wanted to know if you really had a crush on me.”

Keith’s cheeks darkened in a blush and he looked away, but that was answer enough. Lance scratched the back of his head, cheeks also darkening in a blush as he tried to figure out what to say.

“So what if I did? You’re straight.” Keith broke the silence, not looking at the Blue Paladin.

Lance was caught off-guard by his words. “Wha- no I’m not. I prefer pretty girls, but that doesn’t mean I’m straight.”

“What?” Keith’s eyes snap to catch Lance’s.

“I’ve had crushes on guys too.” Lance found himself speaking honestly, and once it started, he couldn’t stop. “And, I, ahm, I’ve liked you for awhile, too. Lately. Y’know.”

There was a long silence between them as both Paladins tried to figure out how this conversation happened to go this way.

“You… Like me too?” Keith asked slowly, continuing when Lance simply nodded in response. “Wow, okay.”

Another silence before Lance spoke up awkwardly. “So, uh, what now?”

“I, ah, maybe we can try to see how things go?”

“You won’t try to push me away again?” Lance asked, his arms relaxing by his sides.

“I can’t promise anything, but I’ll try.” Keith gave a soft wry smile.

Honestly, Lance was happy either way.

Story Done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know, in my outline, I wanted to end this fic with a kiss, but these two are pretty bone-headed and stubborn, so it only ends with them about to get together.  
> Hope yall enjoyed this fic.

**Author's Note:**

> Art done by: [Vare](http://shiroganbatte.tumblr.com/post/167286853430/here-are-the-pictures-for-canadiantardis-fic-for)  
> Beta: [Maddy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/coatofflowers)  
> This was a blast to write, but man the stress.


End file.
